Creating Structure and Routine in Purgatory

Purgatory is a place people can go when they don't deserve hell, but aren't quite ready for heaven. It's also that place between professional activities if a person has not made a smooth, expected transition. For instance, people who quit their job before getting another one, or finish undergrad early and have to wait a full semester before they can enter graduate school often find themselves in purgatory. Such people that getting things done, including getting out of purgatory, becomes steadily difficult over time. Most gain a sense of how much they depended on the preexisting structure to function both professionally and personally. Professional Purgatory also has the quality of being harder to escape the longer you are in it.

I work with many clients on creating routines and structure during this time so that they can complete applications, attend to self-care, check and respond to emails, and otherwise achieve a relatively high level of productivity that is required during the job application process. However, there are several aspects of purgatory that make creating a routine difficult.

Superstructure

Purgatory, by definition, is without structure. Even the worst job has some sort of structure to it. There are deadlines, assignments, and expectations. Good work and bad work are well-defined. It turns out that a certain amount of structure is conducive to and necessary for productivity. Obviously, too much structure can stifle other good things like creativity, but even artists tell me their work time is relatively structured. Having to create and maintain self-governed superstructure is very difficult. Many people think owning their own business would be fun, but they know without some structure imposed from outside of themselves they would languish.

Authority

No one's in charge in purgatory. People need there to be a cost for not getting work done. Many of my clients set goals for themselves, and when they don't meet them, no one cares. Most people cannot pull motivation solely from the fact that something is good to do. They need to know that not doing that thing will bring a penalty. In purgatory, you're the one who is in charge, but you don't seem to have any authority. If you did you would promote yourself out of purgatory.

Coworkers

There are no colleagues in purgatory. During the Pandemic we learned about "body-doubling", or the notion that it's easier to be productive if you're around people who are also being productive. In college if we really wanted to concentrate we would study in the library or study groups. We're social animals and body-doubling activates our need for connection and collaboration. In purgatory, you work alone.

Existence

The longer purgatory lasts (and for the average person in this situation, it last a while), the harder it is to justify any individual task. Purgatory is governed by entropy. My clients report a sense of hopeless futility that is hard to shake. The problem is that they work hard on boring, mundane tasks associated with the application process and then throw their efforts into an abyss (i.e., the current application process in the US) where they likely will never hear a response. In a sense, futility is a very adaptive response to the job search process because most of one's efforts result in nothing, and most people will be satisfied with a single, positive response. In purgatory, the longer you are there, the longer you will be there.

Governed by Irony

Most people in purgatory will tell me they were trying to escape from over-control, too many rules, and a lack of a sense of meaning and freedom in their work. In many cases they can admit that purgatory is worse than the bad situation they were escaping.

Escaping from Professional Purgatory, if this is where you find yourself, is assisted by the systematic application of structure, accountability, deadlines, and skilled support. The hardest part may be willingly taking on these limitations, and and voluntarily relinquishing some freedom. Most can admit, however, that freedom that results in monotony, lethargy, financial insecurity, and hopelessness is no kind of freedom they want anyway.